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OCR for page 69
Dissemination and Impact of Consensus
Development Statements
Arnold D. Kaluzny
Consensus development conferences were initiated in the United
States at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1977 as a method
for developing a statement of accepted standards for clinical prac-
tice either with regard to the use of a particular technology or the
treatment of a particular disease or syndrome. Other countries have
organized conferences, although their formats and purposes have
changed over time and between countries. The purpose of this paper
is to consider the main elements of the dissemination activities in
various countries, programs, to consider different methods of diffu-
sion, and to assess their impacts in various settings. The analysis
presented is based on program profiles prepared by each country for
the International Workshop on Consensus Development for Medical
Technology Assessment (1989~. A comparative review of these
profiles provides a unique opportunity to analyze international ef-
forts in the dissemination of consensus recommendations and to
suggest possible areas for further research.
ELEMENTS OF DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES
While the elements of the dissemination process for any particular
program vary by country, it is possible to compare these vis-a-vis
barriers to diffusion identified by existing theory and research. Al-
though the list could be quite extensive, attention will be given to
69
OCR for page 69
70
CONSENSUS DEVELOPMENT
four factors with varying degrees of tractability that may directly
influence dissemination activities: attributes of the technology un-
der review and the resulting consensus statement, adopter character-
istics, environmental constraints and incentives, and communication
channels.
Attributes
The technology selected for review and the technological attri-
butes considered are important determinants of dissemination. Un-
fortunately, the literature on the diffusion of medical technology is
often characterized by inconsistent findings and thus is often dis-
counted in our overall effort to better manage me review process
and the dissemination of state-of-the-art technology. In part, this
inconsistency is accounted for by what some researchers (Downs
and Mohr, 1976) have termed a unitary approach to developing in-
novation theory. This means that all innovations, regardless of type
and/or specific attributes, are considered as equal and subject to the
same theory. Increasingly, it is recognized that both the rate and
speed of adoption and diffusion are a function of the interaction of
the type and attributes of the innovation with various adopter char-
acteristics (FenneH and Warnecke, 1988~. Moreover, there is some
evidence to suggest that both diffusion and adoption of various types
of programs or technologies are not totally random. There appears
to be a predictable order that the adopting unit follows as it tend to
implement and/or adopt a particular activity (Fennel!, 1984~. Cer-
tain types of technologies may be linked in such a way that the
implementation of one tends to facilitate implementation of another.
Thus, the selection of topics for consensus and the range of criteria
upon which judgments are made are extremely important in the de-
sign of a dissemination strategy.
A review of consensus development conferences indicates that
they take a fairly inclusive view of the types of technology subject
to the consensus development process. While all programs specify
criteria for inclusion, the technologies reviewed tend to be fairly
eclectic and not subject to any apparent a priori strategy that would
facilitate dissemination. Among the programs considered here, the
one exception to this generalization is the Canadian Task Force on
the Periodic Health Examination. The Canadian Task Force limits
the focus of their evaluation and dissemination efforts to preventive
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DISSEMINATION AND IMPACT
71
services offered to asymptomatic individuals within a primary care
setting. This implicit programmatic theme may facilitate dissemina-
tion and the subsequent adoption of consensus recommendations by
physicians.
Different countries assess a range of attributes for particular tech-
nologies in the consensus development programs. As documented
in the innovation literature (Fineberg, 1985; Scott, in press), these
attributes influence diffusion of technology as wed as the ability to
have an impact on physician practice. For example, technologies
that have a favorable cost-benef~t ratio, are compatible with ongoing
practice patterns, and are consistent with reimbursement policies
will be disseminated more readily to potential adopters. Table 1
presents the various attributes upon which technologies are assessed
according to three major groupings. The U.S. program and the Ca-
nadian Research Group focus explicitly and almost exclusively on
the effectiveness of technology.
~ . .. . ~ ~ . ~ .
The Canadian Task Force and The
Netherlands emphasize effectiveness, with secondary consideration
given to the psychosocial, economic, ethical, and legal implications.
The programs in Finland, Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom,
and Sweden appear to give equal weight to effectiveness as well as
other attributes, including cost and service requirements.
Technology and its associated attributes are important factors in
the diffusion process, yet an equally critical element concerns the
attributes of the consensus statement itself. How clear is the state-
ment? Is it prescriptive or discursive, and does it provide concrete
and specific actions or guidelines that physicians can follow in clini-
cal practice? While there has been no systematic study of how the
attributes of the consensus statement influence physician decision
making, one U.S. study of the NIH consensus development process
attempted to assess the attributes of the consensus statement (Kanouse
et al., 1987~. The researchers selected 24 statements for analysis
and found three dimensions for statement classification: discursive,
didactic, and scholarly. Discursive statements tend to be long and
abstract and contain few recommendations.
. . . . ~ . . .
Consensus statements
;narac~er~zea as a~aacuc otter cacaos practical and detailed guid-
ance, while scholarly statements offer up-to-date descriptions of the
scientific evidence bearing on a topic and devote more attention to
detail than most statements. The critical issue is obviously the rela-
tionship of these and other attributes to an actual change in physi-
cian knowledge and behavior.
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DISSEMINATION AND IMPACT
Adopter Characteristics Behavior and Structure
73
Physician characteristics and the context of their practice are criti-
cal to any dissemination effort. Table 2 indicates that several coun-
tries have conducted evaluations of their programs and that the level
of awareness of both the conferences and their content vary by coun-
try and within country by physician characteristics. For example,
evaluation results suggest that there are significant differences in the
level of awareness between U.S. and Swedish physicians. In Swe-
den, a national sample of physicians revealed a significant level of
awareness among targeted groups. Awareness of a single consensus
conference was very high, ranging from 86 to 94 percent in all target
groups, with approximately 7 to 10 percent of the respondents indi-
cating that the consensus statement evoked some changes in clinical
practice (Iohnsson, 19881. In a national sample of U.S. physicians,
41 percent reported general awareness of the program but only IS
percent said they were somewhat or very familiar with it. Awareness
varied by specialty, with oncologists indicating the greatest familiar-
ity and family practitioners the least (Kanouse et al., 19871.
Awareness also appears to be a function of physicians' sociode-
mographic characteristics. Analysis of the U.S. data (Kanouse et
al., 1987) revealed that physicians who had heard of the program
were somewhat older, had practiced medicine about two years longer,
were less likely to work in private group practice and more likely to
work in a hospital, clinic, or other institutional setting; or were more
likely to be the members of a medical school's teaching staff and to
report that they had responsibility for training students, residents,
and interns. Moreover, their information habits and preferences were
quite different. Physicians who were aware of the program reported
spending more time reading journals such as the Journal of the
American Medical Association (where many NIH consensus state-
ments are published) and tended to talk informally with their col-
leagues about medical topics. They also reported spending 30 per-
cent more time attending continuing medical education courses and
tended to receive patient referrals from a larger number of physi-
cians than did those who were less aware of program recommenda-
tions.
What is the relationship of conference recommendations to actual
clinical practice? Three countries report evaluation efforts to link
conference recommendations with actual clinical practice patterns.
Of these three studies' only the Norwegian results suggest that the
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74
CONSENSUS DEVEl~OPMENT
consensus conference recommendations affected practice patterns.
However, as the evaluation suggests, and as discussed under the
section dealing with environmental constraints, this may be more a
function of environmental factors than of a consensus statement.
The researchers used a preconference, postconference survey design
to gather data from the country-wide registration of ultrasound pro-
cedures. The analysis revealed a reduction in the average number of
diagnostic ultrasound examinations per woman following the pro-
mulgation of the consensus conference recommendations on the use
of ultrasound in pregnancy.
Data from two remaining studies indicate the contrary. A recent
Canadian analysis of practice guidelines for use of cesarean sections
on the attitudes and behavior of physicians reveals that there was
substantial awareness and agreement on the proposed guidelines as
well- as a self-reported change in practice (Lomas et al., 1989~.
However, the actual analysis of hospital discharge data suggested
that the consensus guidelines produced little or no change in actual
practice. A similar analysis comparing self-reported practice with
actual practice was conducted as part of a U.S. evaluation (Kanouse
et al., 1987~. Here, changes were measured in several hospital-
based procedures that were subject to consensus conference recom-
mendations, providing a comparison between physician self-reported
and actual practice vis-a-vis exposure to particular consensus recom-
mendations (Kosecoff et al., 1987~. Results showed that the confer-
ences largely failed to stimulate change in physicians' practices,
despite moderate success in reaching appropriate target audiences.
While this analysis involved physicians and hospitals in only one
geographic region of the United States, and thus is subject to severe
limits of generalization, the data did reveal that physicians' pre-
ferred practice patterns bear a strong relationship to what they actu-
ally do. The link, however, between consensus development confer-
ences and actual practices was quite disappointing. For example, in
the analysis of a breast cancer conference, relationships between
physician awareness of the conference and their compliance with the
recommendations reflected preexisting differences, not a program
effect.
Environmental Constraints and Incentives
The context in which dissemination occurs can facilitate or inhibit
the process. The literature on diffusion points to a series of organi-
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DISSEMINATION AND IMPACT
75
zations at the federal, state, and local levels that affect this process
(Fineberg, 1985~. For example, in Norway, the endorsement by the
Health Directorate of the consensus conference statement on ultra-
sound screening of pregnant women as the national guideline af-
fected the use of ultrasound screening in clinical practice (Backe
and Nafstad, 19891. Equally important, but often overlooked, may
be subseries of"supply-side factors" (Robertson and Gatignon, 1987~.
Sources of innovative technology other than consensus statements
may influence physician behavior and are important in determining
the amount of persuasive information being transmitted to potential
adopters. For example, the aggressive marketing strategies of pA-
vate corporations that produce medical technologies and the clinical
policies of hospitals and clinics that provide care influence physi-
cian behavior.
The extent to which environmental constraints and incentives af-
fect dissemination or are considered in formulating a dissemination
plan varies according to the structure and function of the program.
The very composition of a consensus development panel is often
intended to address some of these constraints by including relevant
administrators and policymakers in the consensus development pro-
cess. For example, the Swedish program considers social, organiza-
tional, and economic aspects of technologies. Thus, the conferences
involve experts in medicine, health economics, epidemiology, and
health policy, as well as administrators and concerned patient groups.
The resulting statements go beyond addressing the safety and effi-
cacy of the technology. The statements are directed toward a much
broader audience, with dissemination targeted to concerned physi-
cians, politicians, and administrators.
Evaluation studies have focused both on the awareness of consen-
sus development conferences by health administrators and politi-
cians and their awareness of consensus results. Among one sample
of Swedish health administrators and politicians, awareness of con-
sensus conferences was high (Calitorp, 1988~. Eighty-nine percent
indicated that they knew about the conference. Ninety-nine percent
of the administrators were aware of the consensus conference, and
85 percent of the politicians knew about the consensus conference.
When queried about their awareness of the outcomes (i.e., the con-
tent of the consensus statements), results were equally impressive.
Eighty-three percent of the respondents were aware of the outcome
of one or more conferences. Administrators ranked highest (96 per-
cent of the administrators were aware of one or more statements).
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76
CONSENSUS DEVELOPMIINT
Eighty-four percent of the politicians (full- or part-time) were aware
of one or more of the statements. The latter ranged from a low of 49
percent who were aware of diagnostic imaging of liver tumors and
67 percent who indicated awareness of the recommendations on sight-
improving surgery.
Communication Channels
The channels used to learn about new medical technologies have
been a frequent subject of investigation (Eisenberg, 1986; Fineberg,
19XS). Consensus development conferences have used a variety of
channels, giving primary importance to professional journals, both
general and specialty, and direct mailings of consensus statements.
Table 3 lists the various channels used by countries' programs as
part of their dissemination efforts. Few programs use direct mail or
continuing education. The majority of programs disseminate vari-
ous forms of publications to health care providers, managers, and
policymakers, whereas fewer programs target the general public. The
evaluation of specific channels has been limited. Two exceptions
include the RAND Corporation study (Kanouse et al., 1987) of the
U.S. consensus development program and the Canadian Research
Group proposal. The latter is a potential series of quasi experiments
to evaluate alternative dissemination strategies (Lomas, 1989~. Spe-
cifically, the Canadian Research Group is conducting a large ran-
domized controlled trial to evaluate two dissemination strategies;
one strategy uses local '`educational influentials" and the other strat-
egy involves the use of chart audit and feedback.
The U.S. evaluation suggests that consensus recommendations are
more likely to reach specialists than generalist physicians (Kanouse
et al., 19X7~. The study was not able to establish a direct link
between awareness and publication in a generalist type channel, such
as the Journal of the American Medical Association (lAMA), which
publishes most of the NIH consensus statements. The analysis re-
vealed that reading lAMA had no predictive value after other factors
such as specialty and type of practice were taken into account.
Reading the New England Journal of Medicine and various specialty
journals, however, and being part of a well-defined network of clini-
cians was associated with greater awareness of the consensus devel-
opment program. Similar patterns existed with respect to actual
knowledge of relevant conferences, with higher levels of awareness
being recorded by physicians reading specialty journals.
OCR for page 69
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78
CONSENSUS DEVELOPMENT
The U.S. evaluation also assessed continuing medical education
(CME) programs and direct mailings as alternative communications
channels (Kanouse et al., 1987~. Dissemination through CME pro-
grams was considered an important source in that more than two-
thirds of respondents in the physician survey regarded conferences,
meetings, and CME programs as "very important" information sources
both for first hearing about new medical procedures and for deciding
whether to use them. Nearly half of the physicians surveyed had
learned of the Consensus Development Program through direct mail-
ing of different reports by the National Institutes of Health. A sub-
study to examine direct mailings to five relevant specialties in the
metropolitan St. Louis, Missouri, area revealed that significantly more
physicians who received such mailings were aware of the confer-
ence and its recommendations than was a comparative sample of
physicians who did not receive such direct mailings (Iacoby and
Clarke, 1986).
AREAS OF FUTURE RESEARCH
The development of consensus development conferences, many
with different functions and structures operating within a variety of
different health care systems, provides an opportunity for future col-
laborative research and evaluation. Variations in function, structure,
and setting provide a unique opportunity to set up a series of natural
experiments that can increase the overall understanding of the basic
diffusion process as well as the effectiveness of alternative dissemi-
nation strategies. This understanding is critical for (~) enhancing
the effectiveness of consensus development conferences vis-a-vis
their stated goals and objectives and (2) providing a data base from
which to evaluate the consensus conference approach to dissemina-
tion compared with other methodologies and programmatic initia-
fives that can influence physician practice patterns (e.g., standards
and protocol participation). Listed below are several research areas
that capitalize on a systematic and comparative assessment of con-
sensus development conferences.
· Evaluation of specific dissemination methods. The effective-
ness of specific dissemination strategies is an empirical question and
is contingent on several covariants. One approach would be to set
up a series of experiments or quasi experiments to evaluate alterna-
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DISSEMINATION AND IMPACT
79
live strategies beyond those traditionally used such as professional
journals and newsletters. For example, the Canadian Research Group
randomized trial evaluates two implementation strategies: use of
local influentials versus use of chart audit and feedback Comas,
19X9~. Obviously, this requires replication in other settings along
with the opportunity to evaluate other dissemination strategies such
as the use of"clinical alerts" by relevant governmental agencies,
computerized physician query systems, and the use of follow-up
meetings for selected clinicians that are related to a particular con-
sensus statement.
· Role of organizational intermediaries. An underlying assump-
tion of most dissemination efforts is that the individual physician is
the unit of analysis and should be the target of the dissemination
effort. In reality, however, health care organizations are involved in
the delivery and financing of the technology and represent important
constituent groups. Thus, they are critical actors in the adoption
process. This is clearly recognized by several of the European pro-
grams, in that their panels include administrators and policymakers,
yet even within this context, the explicit target is the physician.
The explicit targeting of organizations and their decision-making
processes requires an understanding of organizational behavior, which
is quite different from individual adoption processes. Consideration
needs to be given to a range of factors including structural charac-
teristics, the role of coalitions within organizations, and the idea of
secondary choices (i.e., the implementation decision by the organi-
zation and the subsequent adoption decision by the physician).
· Interaction of attributes, adopters, and environmental charac-
teristics. A central issue is the kind of diffusion and adoption pro-
cess that may occur with different types of technology, different
types of consensus statements, and different environmental condi-
tions. The opportunity to explore each, as wed as their interactions,
is present in a cross-cultural assessment of dissemination practice.
There is a unique opportunity to employ a natural experiment using
a series of tracer technologies for consensus development programs
and dissemination efforts in a variety of countries. This approach
would clarify the nature of the interaction between the attributes of
the technology being diffused, the characteristics of the adopting
unit and the political and policy context of various countries. For
example, one would expect different diffusion patterns in competi-
tive and regulatory environments. The ability to monitor these dif-
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80
CONSENSUS DEVELOPMENT
fusion patterns over time and to compare different delivery systems
permits insight as to how larger cultural factors and values influence
practice patterns (Waitzkin, 1983~. This type of evaluation would
help us move away from a "unitary approach to diffusion" and to-
ward building and testing theory that would have greater relevance
to the actual design of dissemination strategies.
· Dissemination and changes in actual clinical practice. While
evaluations of dissemination strategies have focused primarily on
awareness of Me consensus development program and/or specific
program recommendations, the real issue is whether dissemination
and the resulting awareness actually change physician practice pat-
terns. Few evaluations have attempted to assess such changes; and
evaluations that examine the relationships between dissemination
efforts, levels of awareness, and attitudes toward specific confer-
ences with physician behavior are needed. This information would
provide a critical link to targeting areas of practice requiring con-
sensus recommendations since it is precisely these areas of practice
that determine physician readiness to comply with recommended
changes.
· Revising assumptions about the role of dissemination. A good
share of our diffusion models, or at least the assumptions underlying
them, are borrowed from a simpler time and a simpler problem.
Clearly, the dissemination of information to change physician prac-
tices is far more complex than efforts to change the buying habits of
the general public. A close examination of clinical practice patterns
and decision-making processes reveals a level of intractability that
is not easily influenced by fairly simple dissemination practices.
For example, a qualitative analysis comparing decision-making prac-
rices of physicians in the United Kingdom and the United States in
terms of adoption of formed versus dynamic (unformed) technolo-
gies revealed that physician decision-making processes are greatly
shaped by the perspectives of local clinical practices and are not
easily influenced by more formal dissemination channels. Ann Greer
suggests: "there are no magic signatories or formats which will cause
knowledge to jump off the page and into practice" (Greer, 1988~.
The complexity of the decision-making process clearly suggests
that consideration needs to be given to other strategies beyond simple
dissemination and that in the future the relative cost-effectiveness of
these strategies must be given greater attention. This is not to sug-
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DISSEMINATION AND IMPACT
81
gest that consensus development conferences and concomitant dis-
semination strategies be abandoned, but they need to be supple-
mented with private and other public sector initiatives consistent
with the underlying process of clinical practice. One approach may
be to couple the involvement of clinicians in ongoing research (e.g.,
clinical trials) with the systematic selection of topics for consensus
development and subsequent diffusion to the practicing community.
For example, within the United States, the National Cancer Institute
has instituted a Community Clinical Oncology Program that allows
local practitioners to participate in clinical trials research. Combin-
ing this type of involvement with the diffusion of consensus state-
ments may be worthy of consideration. Another possibility is to
capitalize on larger ongoing initiatives to target dissemination ef-
forts. For example, in the United States the Joint Commission on
Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has launched a program
to monitor selected organizational and clinical outcome indicators as
part of the overall hospital accreditation process. The availability of
this information may help to target dissemination efforts to those
clinical areas amenable to and/or requiring change. Finally, the chang-
ing of practice patterns requires a new recognition of the role of
patients and administrators in the clinical decision-making process.
As reflected in many of the European consensus development con-
ferences, consumers and/or their representatives, along with admin-
istrators and various policymakers, are important contributors in the
evaluation of given technologies. Consumer involvement and influ-
ence in changing physician practice patterns is not well understood
and is worthy of investigation and evaluation.
SUMMARY
The consensus development programs and the resulting consensus
statements represent one approach to influencing clinical practice.
The development of this approach and its adaptation in both struc-
ture and function under different countries' initiatives provide an
important opportunity to assess its utility under a variety of condi-
tions. Evaluations of programs' effectiveness in changing clinical
practice patterns must take into account attributes of the technolo-
gies considered, as well as the consensus statements themselves and
a variety of organizational and environmental factors that influence
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82
CONSEiNSUS DElfELOPMENT
the dissemination process. The consensus statement should be rec-
ognized as only one influence on clinical practice and should be
considered an integral part of a broader strategy of dissemination
and technology transfer.
REFERENCES
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in Norway after the consensus conference recommending routine screening. Paper
presented at the Fifth Annual Meeting of the International Society of Technology
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Calltorp, J. 1988. Consensus development conferences in Sweden: Effects on health
policy and administration. International Journal of Technology Assessment in
Health Care 4:75-88.
Downs, G., and L. Mohr. 1976. Conceptual issues in the study of innovation.
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Eisenberg, J.M. 1986. Doctors' Decisions and the Cost of Medical Care: The Rea-
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Fennell, M. 1984. Synergy, influence and information in the adoption of adminis-
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Fennell, M., and R. Warnecke. 1988. The Diffusion of Medical Innovations. New
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Fineberg, H.V. 1985. Effects of clinical evaluation on the diffusion of medical
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Jacoby, I., and S.M. Clarke. 1986. Direct mailing as a means of disseminating NIH
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Johnsson, M. 1988. Evaluation of the consensus conference program in Sweden: Its
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Kanouse, D.E., R.H. Brook, J.D. Winkler, J. Kosecoff, S.H. Berry, G.M. Carter, J.
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Lomas, J. 1989. Profile for the consensus development program in Canada. Paper
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Lomas, J., M.W. Enkin, G.M. Anderson, K. Domnick-Pierre, E. Vayda, and W.
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Robertson, T., and H. Gatignon. 1987. The diffusion of high technology innova-
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Scott, W.R. In press. Innovations in medical care organizations. Medical Care
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Waitzkin, H. 1983. The Second Sickness. New York: Free Press.
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Program Profiles
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